Late yesterday afternoon we took our California family to Logan airport for their trip home. At ten, four hours after they had been scheduled to takeoff, they called. Their flight was not just delayed, it was cancelled! So back to Logan we went to bring them home because JetBlue did not and was not going to reschedule them. Basically the message was “Tough.” Some young girls traveling by themselves stood and cried not knowing what to do.

All of my life I have been told that Jesus is coming again and soon. His return and our trip to be with Him seems to be delayed. However, one thing we can be sure of is the trip will never be cancelled. We will not be left holding a useless ticket. In John 14 Jesus promised to come again and take us to His Father’s house. That promise is still good. And while we might think He has delayed, His disciple Peter addressed the issue for us in his second letter. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Unlike JetBlue which didn’t fly last night because it couldn’t put together a crew, Jesus has His crew. He longs to come. But He continues to wait because of His longsuffering. It is just that He doesn’t want to leave someone on the outside.

Frankly, I don’t know how He will ever resolve the problem of His love. But He will. Peter goes on to say, “The day of the Lord will come.” Of this we can be sure because He never ever breaks a promise.

We have this old wooden bear standing near our bird feeder. It stands on its hind legs. Knowing that our grandchildren would be here during the holidays, my wife put an old hooded coat on the bear. Sure enough the birds quickly became used to the coat and continued to feed from the bear’s wooden paws. Now comes the neat part. One by one our grandchildren put on the old hooded coat and stood in front of the wooden bear. The birds seemed a bit cautious, something was different; never-the-less juncos, titmice and chickadees came and fed from the children’s hands. It was an exciting moment.

Birds are not the only creatures that can be conditioned. Humans are especially prone to conditioning. It doesn’t take us long to change our behaviors, our sense of fashion, style and speech. If we are told, enough times, that something is beautiful, we actually begin to think it is beautiful. Many of us pride ourselves on being independent thinkers, but the truth is we are not as independent as we suppose. Paul certainly understood this and thus warned us in Romans 12 not to be conformed to the world. Ever so slowly our sense of right and wrong, our sense of decency, our moral code is modified. Psalm 1:1 encourages us not to walk by, stand by and ultimately sit down in sinful places and ways.

The way to guard against such change is to continually focus on our benchmark - Scripture. If we daily feed our minds on the purity of God’s Word we can perceive the lower standards about us. However, should we fail to keep our eye on the benchmark, we will change. It is our nature to do so.

We received a box of Godiva chocolates for Christmas. They are an indulgent luxury one should never buy for oneself. That being one of my core beliefs means I can only have a Godiva chocolate when given one. This is the second time in my life. At that rate I shall never have another. Forest Gump’s mother must have never had a Godiva chocolate because they come with a map. She would have discovered life is not like a Godiva chocolate because if you read the map you do know what you are going to get. She ate the cheap kind. She didn’t know what life was going to bring.

As I sit here looking at the gold colored paper box it suddenly occurred to me that a life without Jesus is like the cheap stuff. You don’t know what’s coming. It’s a life without a map. A life with Jesus is a life with a map. While the map doesn’t show us all the bumps in the road it definitely reveals our destination. When I bite into a Godiva chocolate I know what to expect, except the reality is better than the anticipation. Once again this is like a life in Christ. We know what we will receive - eternal life. The reality will be so much better than the anticipation. I wonder if Godiva ever considered I Corinthians 2:9 as a motto. “Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard.” Well, that really is an overstatement regarding candy. But it definitely is no overstatement for the wonders and glory awaiting those who accept the gift of God’s grace.

While I cannot promise you a bumpless journey I can with all assurance promise you a safe and successful destination if you are trusting Jesus.

We are in the midst of what the weather people are calling a blizzard. The wind has for over three hours been blowing over thirty-five miles an hour and has been pelting the sides of our house with tiny ice crystals. At some point our eighty pound black lab has to go outside. When I open the door she puts her head outside and checks out the birds flocking to the feeder for food, but she is reluctant to venture forth. No amount of telling her to go has worked. But when I attach her leash she pushes past me to lead the way. If I am going with her than it must be okay and out we go.

She reminds me of me. I depend on the last words of Matthew 28 where Jesus promises to always be with us. I really don’t want to go anywhere without my Master. When I was small I learned to sing “Anywhere He leads me I can safely go.” “Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade.” When we are small we have our parents but as the years go by in the due course of time we lose them. We become the big people. We become the security for our little ones.

Even though my dad has been gone for twenty-six years I still find myself impulsively wanting to call him and tell him about something that has happened in my life. Then I remember that I can’t. It is wonderful to know there is someone to call who is older, bigger, stronger and very interested in me. Jesus is there. So I call Him. Just as my dog seems to need a master so do I. So do we.

I’m sitting here this evening thinking about gifts. It is difficult not to do so on Christmas Eve. Did I remember everyone? Did I get the right thing? Will they like it or will they regift it? That would be better than having it reside in the bottom of a drawer for the next twenty years. Would they give it back? Nobody does that; especially if it is extraordinarily valuable.

But that is not always true. People do give back the most precious Gift they ever received. Usually it is young people with little if any developed concept of time. When we are children the seventy or eighty years we have ahead of us is an eternity. When they accept the Gift of eternal life from Jesus there is little difference between that Gift and what they already have. Somewhere along the journey, perhaps in their twenties they give back the gift without a thought. It just happens as they get busy with life and careers and families. Life becomes too full for their relationship with Jesus. Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. It makes the heart forget. Hopefully in a few decades when mortality becomes real they will reaccept the Gift. How grand that it is always there. God never goes away. It’s us that go away.

I have always wanted to regift salvation. Of course I wanted to give it away and yet still keep it. I wondered if there was anyone I would regift it to and NOT retain it. Jesus asked, “What would a man give in exchange for His soul?” For me the answer is simple. My wife – my children – my grandchildren. How amazing that Jesus gave it away for His enemies!!

Our California children arrived late last night. Hooray. This afternoon in the midst of a real New England snowstorm we cut down our Christmas tree. It was perfect. The weather was perfect. The tree was perfect and the company was perfect. We put the tree in the garage to let the snow melt off before bringing it into the house. On the way out the door to go to the grocery store my wife asked me to make a fresh cut on the bottom of the tree. Now I must admit I was puzzled by this because we had just cut down the tree. I made a feeble objection but I knew better. While she was gone I made another fresh cut. My son started to clean up the sawdust. “No,” I explained. “Leave the evidence.” I was feeling smug.

When she came home she pulled the car into the garage over top of the sawdust. Can you believe it? There was now no visible evidence to prove my compliance. So much for being a good guy.

Sometimes I obey God because I want His approval. That is really silly. If we have made Jesus our Lord we already have His approval. God doesn’t want our obedience so He can declare us “Good Guys.” He wants our obedience because obedience leads to the abundant life He desires for us. Being good brings its own rewards just as being bad ultimately brings grief. We actually leave evidence all over the place. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” It’s very hard to hide the evidence when there are piles of it all around.

In 1971 William Hall of Shrewsbury, England killed himself by drilling eight holes in his head with a power drill. I know that’s a pretty gruesome way to begin this devotional. However, the significant fact to note is that he drilled seven holes in his head and was still alive. I could not help but think of a conversation I had with a college student. He was convinced that some of God’s commands were really quite unreasonable. He boasted that he had broken nine of them and was doing fine. He hadn’t killed anyone. He totally rejected my argument that God’s laws were made to protect us from ourselves and others. I wish I had known about William Hall when I talked with my student. Mr. Hall is a great illustration of the truth that you cannot continue to do something really stupid before it kills you. One might get lucky for a few times but not for always.

The truth is God’s commands do make good sense. God isn’t trying to deprive us of anything good. Notice I said “good.” God is trying to deprive us of heartbreak, pain, jail, ruined relationships, etc. If it’s good for us God wants us to enjoy it in moderation. No going off the deep end on good things. Too much of anything is ultimately bad. You can even go to church too much.

I figure this is a good time of the year to talk about Mr. Hall considering the fact that many of you have eggnog in your refrigerator, sugar cookies on the table, and boxes of See’s Candy given to you as presents. Just because you overate last year and got away with it doesn’t mean you can do it this year!

The battery died in my handheld garage door opener. No problem. Sears is just ten minutes away where the helpful salesman sold me the wrong battery even though I had the handheld device with me. He must have been a holiday temp. Another trip to Sears where I swapped the battery for the right one. Back home only to discover because the battery had been dead the opener needed reprogramming to learn the right code. No problem. I drug in the stepladder and climbed up with the instruction manual. Press the green button and a green light will come on for thirty seconds, press the button on the handheld device until the green light blinks. The green light didn’t blink. It just went off meaning that I had just erased the codes for the cars. Now nothing worked. No problem I could call the Sears hotline for help. After pressing six keys on the phone after Sears answered, I finally got to a real human. It wasn’t the right human. No problem. She could connect me with the right human. He wasn’t the right one. No problem. He could connect me to the right lady. She told me to climb the ladder, press the green button until the green light came on and then press the button on the handheld device. I told her I did that all ready. No problem. Do it again. It still didn’t work. “Sorry Mr. Bothwell. That’s all I know to tell you. Have a great day.” Really?

So there I sat with my handheld device in hand and nothing worked. Then my feeble mind said, “Reverse the battery.” I did and all went well after I climbed the ladder and pressed the green button. No problem.

The next time you have to call Heaven for help, I promise you will not have to go through several angels to get to the right department. The very first one will say, “No problem.”

We have a new neighbor. Recently he purchased a home close by that had been on the market for several years. I was working in the front yard this afternoon and he stopped and introduced himself. When I went to tell him my name he said, “Oh, you’re Roger and I know lots about you.” He went on to say he had as a boy been best of friends with the boy who grew up in our house before we moved here. He said, “I have probably been in your house as much as you have. I know everything about it.” Then he went on to describe things in the house that were not here when he was a boy. He described things on the walls and furniture. That was super strange. He explained. His now best friend is a man who replaced our windows. That man spent a lot of time inside.

As he drove down the hill I thought about God knowing all the trivia of our being. He knows the secret parts of our hearts. He knows stuff we don’t want Him to know. He knows stuff that’s in there that we don’t know is in there. It is amazing to think about God knowing everything. Does that mean He is never surprised? Is His foreknowledge based on knowing actual events or is it wisdom based on an eternity of experience? After one has been around the barn a few times one knows what’s on the other side of the barn. Could that be how He knows and our free choice could surprise Him by our doing the unexpected? There is so much we don’t know and the only way to find the answers is to meet with Him face to face, which might not be as far away as we imagine!

Dawn was magical this morning. There was not a cloud in the sky. With majesty a gigantic red-yellow globe rose from the edge of the crisp, fifteen degree cold, landscape. Steam ascended from a few factories in the valley below decorating the morning with ever-changing white fluffy plumes against a deep blue backdrop. The ground crunched underfoot as we left footprints across the lawn. A few nuthatches, chickadees and juncos were already having breakfast at the feeder.

But something had spoiled this winter Eden. My dog was super alert with hair rising from her back and tail straight out. The next forty-five minutes were filled with sniffing the air, alertly responding to every sound, and checking behind all bushes. It was been ten years since we have seen a bear in the yard and neighbors say it has been twice that long since a moose has wandered up Old Farm Road. However, I often see our resident coyote and last week a deer spent the day sleeping in the backyard. I checked the trees for porcupines, sometime visitors. For all my peering I could not find anything. My nose wasn’t telling me what the dog’s nose told her. Something had been with us overnight.

Fear is a very healthy thing. It keeps us from being hurt; but it can also spoil a perfectly fine morning or an entire life. One of the Bible’s strongest messages is for us to fear not. The psalmist wrote, “He shall give His angels charge over us.” And in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus assures us we are so much more valuable than a small bird and yet His Father cares for them.

I’m in the doghouse along with our dog. She decided to unwrap a just wrapped present. No. I was just informed it had been extra nicely wrapped at a department store. The dog did it about two feet from me but I was totally oblivious. I was sitting here staring at the computer screen trying to decide what to write about this evening. The sounds of paper shredding never registered on my feeble mind. When the caretaker of the presents came back into the room and discovered the deed, well, it would be better if I did not mention this again. The present is presently being rewrapped.

Was this a sin of omission? I claim it was for me. However, concerning the dog, that was definitely a sin of commission. She can’t claim insanity, but she could claim ignorance. However ignorance is not a legal excuse. She could deny doing it but unfortunately for her there was ribbon hanging out her mouth and she has present breath. CSI would definitely get her convicted.

Her trying to claim not being guilty would be as ludicrous as our trying to tell God we are innocent. He most likely has video tape of our whole lives and would merely say to the recording angel, “Roll the tape.” We have been had. There is no place to run to. There is no place to hide. If we wait to say we are sorry until we are confronted with the evidence, our begging for forgiveness will be too late. It would be obvious we were not sorry we did the deeds but were only trying to get off the hook.

It’s always best to follow John’s counsel in 1 John 1:9 and confess now. If we do He will freely forgive us of all unrighteousness. It’s the only hope we have.

In our town square (actually a triangle) there is a light bulb snowman. If you tune your FM dial to 107.1 static-filled Christmas music fills your car. When you drive about 500 feet you are out of range. While passing by this evening I thought about the coverage of our personal influence and how wide or how narrow it might be. Some people are like giant broadcasting towers with gigantic coverage like WLS from Chicago that transmits with 50,000 watts of power. Late at night you can hear it all over the country. Then there are those like our light bulb snowman with very limited range.

Some people are bothered because they think they are like the light bulb snowman. However, the truth of one’s influence is rarely known by the influencer. We might think we never made an impact on anyone but we might have been that tiny pebble thrown in a pond that sends a ripple over the water’s entire surface. One of the great rewards of heaven will be an opportunity to read the records of our influence. It will not be for any personal glory but for the satisfaction of knowing we did make a difference.

Everyone one wants to make a difference. I just wish everyone wanted to make a positive difference. We can. In Ephesians 2 Paul refers to the work God has for each of us. There is something special for each of us. If we allow, He will work it out in and through us. It will make a difference for all eternity. How exciting it will be to discover just what it was. The important thing to remember is our influence is very wide and very important.

I have discovered where the Grinch (or Grinches) live. He lives in my little city. My neighbor at the bottom of my hill has for years been putting up a beautiful display of artistic elves carrying presents. He must have been working on it most of the year because this year it was splendid and bigger than ever. This year he must have had over twenty elves and the labor involved had to be huge. Notice I wrote in the past tense. They are no more. Last night some ignorant oaf, most likely inebriated, trashed them. We were anxious for our grandchildren to arrive to enjoy them. Now they are gone for no one to enjoy. It is difficult for me to imagine the feeling of my neighbor artist when he went outside this morning.

Why is it that some people want to destroy things? Could it be that they don’t know how to make anything so instead they destroy out of jealousy? Can you imagine what the world would be like if it were populated with mostly that kind of people? There do seem to be groups of people in the world bent on destruction instead building something positive. How very sad.

Fortunately there are more good people than bad, more builders than destroyers, more lovers than haters. It just seems like there are more bad because what they do is so blatantly in our faces. Unfortunately Time and other news magazines put pictures of the really bad guys on their covers. How disgusting is that?! It only inspires other bad guys to follow suit. Billy the Kid was a jerk. Why does our folklore include him and others like him? Maybe we are the sick ones.

The Bible tells us to think on good things. Ouch, I just didn’t do that!

Like a very small child I continue to be amazed at our world. My older son is at this very moment in the Himalayas in Northern India. We are texting back and forth with little if any delay. I can follow his journey on Google Earth along with his texts of where he is and what he is seeing. Several decades ago when my wife and I taught in Uganda in East Africa we were able to call our parents on the phone only by going to the capital city of Kampala and reserving three minutes of phone time on phone cables that ran under the oceans. We had to make the reservation over a month in advance. It was so expensive we could only afford to do it once every eighteen months. Now we get instantaneous messages from the other side of the world included in our regular cell phone plan.

If we are now able to do this how easy it must be for our prayers to instantly ascend to the throne room of God. Some say it is at the center of the universe. Some say that it is beyond the nebulosity in Orion. Someday we will know just exactly where it is. However, being that God is omnipresent we don’t have to be overly concerned about such because our prayers need not leave the room we are in. He is in that room. Actually, we need not even speak them because our bodies are the temple in which He lives should we allow. (He doesn’t force Himself in where He is not invited.) He hears not as we speak. He hears as we think. That is way so much beyond text messages from the Himalayas.

On a fairly regular basis I hear the questions, “Why doesn’t Jesus return? What is He waiting for?” If they were teachers at the end of a semester they would know the answer. II Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

It’s that most unwonderful time of the year when my desk piles high with term papers, essays, book reports, quizzes and finals. Yuck! First of all, it is amazingly boring to read thirty-five papers on ADHD. Secondly, the writing is usually bad. If it is good one grows suspicious and puts a few words from the paper into the Google search bar. It is very disheartening to get a positive strike.

If it is so difficult for evil men such as I to give bad grades to my students, how much more so must it be difficult for our heavenly Father to close the door of eternity on His children? I want all my students to get A’s. I am not one of those demented teachers who think they are tough (Why is that admirable?) if they don’t give many, if any, A’s. I think that can be translated into, “They did not teach the assigned material very well.” It is a matter of understanding that the students need this material that they might successfully meet life’s challenges.

Some teachers say they don’t give grades; students earn them. Actually, I do hope it is a combination of both ideas. While we are not talking about salvation which is a gift there is also the idea that those who have received much grace know how to be graceful.

Our dog is having a bad time tonight. We have glass covered bookcases and she keeps seeing another dog inside the bookcase. When I open the case that other dog goes away. When the glass comes down the dog comes back. It is very troubling and cause for concerned growling. It’s hard to rest with that other dog invading her space.

This is an easy analogy. When we spend time looking at ourselves, unless we are quite taken with ourselves, life becomes troubled. One or more of several things can happen. Number one - we can begin to concentrate on our imperfections and become discouraged with our lack of progress in overcoming. Or number two – we can start feeling sorry for ourselves thinking we are not getting all the good things we deserve. Or number three – we can think others are expecting too much from us. Or number four – we can start thinking people are out to get us. The list could go on depending on our personalities. The point is looking at ourselves is rarely productive. Life works best when instead we spend our productive hours looking for opportunities to do our job better or to find inventive ways to make others lives happier.

I’m reminded of the old nursery rhyme that goes like this. “Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. Guess I’ll go eat worms. Long, thin, slimy ones; short, fat, juicy ones, itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.” Just in case you ever get to feeling like that allow me to remind you that “Nobody loves me” just isn’t true. We are very loved. And we can always count on that love. It endures despite our sometimes unloveableness.

I have a friend who is almost terrified that in the Day of Judgment God will produce a record or evidence of some unknown sin and the result will be the loss of his eternal life. He tells me he regularly searches his past trying to remember some misdeed he has not yet confessed. He breaks my heart. There is little if any of the joy of salvation in his life. I hope he never hears my concept of sin or he will go over the edge. I believe all of us are filled with unknown sins. It is part of our selfish nature. I see it often regarding the gossipy things I both say and hear about others. Recently I heard someone who is very perfectionistic in his theology speak unlovingly of someone who did not share his theology. Sin permeates us.

I wish I could convince my friend that all of us will be lost if God is in the business of proving us unworthy. There is only one who is worthy. In Revelation 5 John weeps because there is no one worthy to open a book. Then came the good news there was someone. Verse 12 says, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”

God isn’t keeping records to prove us to be sinners. That is very evident. He is storing evidence to prove we accepted the gift of salvation. None of the redeemed are worthy except in Jesus. That includes the nicest, kindest, gentlest person you have ever known. My friend must stop worrying, relax and enjoy the joy of being held SAFELY in Jesus’ hand. It’s a good place to be.

It’s that most wonderful time of the year when every ministry you know of asks you for money. It’s my turn. I apologize to Pam who just this very day requested I put her on the devotional mailing list. This will be her first email from me and would you believe it is a request for money. Sorry Pam. I really am. I promise you that I only do this once a year and it is your misfortune to start on the very day. My reason for doing it now is the same for all other ministries. People are getting their financial affairs in order before the end of the year. They want to be sure their contributions are in before December 31 so they can get their receipts for tax purposes.

Most of you know what Spring of Life is all about. But Pam probably doesn’t know. Primarily we are a radio ministry that broadcasts the short devotionals each day. We have been doing this for over twenty years and in those decades we have written 6,295 devotionals. About 50% of them are available in the archives on the Internet at rogerbothwell.org.

In addition to the radio emphasis my wife and I teach at a small college in New England. Almost 50% of our students come from families below the United States poverty level. Therefore, we are continually watching for worthy students who need assistance. We purchase text books, sometimes clothes, and help students go on mission trips, which does so much for them. We also send children to summer camp and help with medical expenses. All in all we try to do what Jesus would do. So we ask for your help.

At first I was tempted to ask people to contribute an amount equal to what they feel the value of the devotions are worth. But that is frightening because someone might send me a penny. So I will ask you to contribute what you hope they are worth to others.
Thanks so much. We really do appreciate your care. And if you can’t give I want you to know I am grateful that you would read the devotionals. It makes the almost daily effort very worthwhile.

‘Tis that wonderful time of the year when each day’s mailbox overflows with catalogs. Some of the catalogs feature junk that one would be lucky if they didn’t arrive broken. Then there are others with some lovely very expensive items one would be fearful to use lest they break. I’m looking at one featuring silver coins from the time of Jesus’ birth. To guarantee their authenticity they tell us they will send a certificate of authenticity with the coins. But who is going to certify the certificate of authenticity is authentic? If someone can make fake coins why not also make fake certificates?

I was wondering if heaven sent out a catalog at this time of the year, what would it feature? On page one we might find an ad for peace of mind. That should be a popular item. Throughout the years I was a pastor I saw hundreds of people who needed this. Page two could feature patience. That should be a popular article. I saw a couple of guys on the freeway this afternoon that really needed this one. Honesty should be on page three. That would be a good one for all those people trying to steal our identity and charge Christmas gifts to our credit cards. Heaven could put the gift of hospitality on page four. There’s a delightful quality that would enable us to make people comfortable and feel cared for. That’s a gift that could change the world.

Then of course the feature item of the catalog would be eternal life. The price would be paradoxical. It is the most valuable item listed. But it would be listed already paid for and with free shipping. All of the items would include free shipping.

At first I was a bit taken back and then amused. There was an elderly lady (someone older than me) in the supermarket with a lip ring and a diamond stud in the side of her nose. I have gotten used to seeing that in young people but really now - Granny? I probably should not tell you what text jumped to my mind. It reveals that I am not such a nice person. It was Proverbs 11:22, “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.”

There are some things that just don’t go together. Ferrari pickup trucks, breeding a Chihuahua with a Great Dane, marrying a Jihadist to a Jew are just a few things that pop into my mind. According to Paul there are a few things that do not go with being a Christian. He lists them in Galatians 5. “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

That is a very depressing list. So let’s feed our souls with Paul’s list of things that do go along with being a Christian. It is also in Galatians 5. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Now that’s much better. If things are good let’s think about them.

There is a fascinating clause in Ephesians 3:10. Paul makes reference to “. . . the principalities and powers in heavenly places. . .” This evening’s network news reported that astronomers have upped the number of stars accessible to our instruments. The number is now a three followed by twenty-six zeros. That looks like this 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Are we impressed yet? Or is it so incomprehensible that it is just a string of zeros?

I have no desire to take advantage of your time by filling this message with my fantasies, but it is so difficult not to wonder just what Paul meant. Is there some form of government and leadership on each of the worlds God has made? “. . . his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. . .” Hebrews 1:2. It is obvious that Paul certainly did not think we were alone.

Diplomacy in our State Department is the fine art of representing our nation to other nations. Might this be our eternal task? To glorify God by being diplomats that bear physical witness to our redemption. We, like no other beings, can personally speak of grace. With us it is not an academic topic. Salvation is not a subject for sermons or lectures in a classroom. With us it is personal. Those who have personally been rescued from some horror can speak with moving power that cannot be replicated by the greatest of actors.

One of my students mentioned the possibility of finally visiting everywhere and becoming bored at some point in eternity. I am most anxious to find him tomorrow and give him an opportunity to pronounce the number three followed by twenty-six zeros.

I have just developed a serious case of printer envy. I along with one of my colleagues took pictures of our students. We want the pictures for a display in our department. Her pictures are about twice as good as mine. Hers look professional and mine look like a grade school project. Both of us are using Canon cameras, Canon paper and Canon printers. But her printer has five different ink cartridges and mine only has four. The difference in the picture quality is dramatic.

My question is. Is it okay for me to want a printer like hers as long as I don’t long for her printer? Am I or am I not violating the “Thou shall not covet”? I don’t think I am. I believe the commandment was designed to keep me from scheming how to get something from another person. I am not to want someone’s job or someone’s wife, something that can’t be replicated.

The entire issue of commandment keeping is all about love for someone other than myself. It’s the heart of God’s law. God is not interested in giving us commandments to see if we are obedient. He is interested in protecting us from harming ourselves and others. This is why obedience becomes the fruit of our experience with Jesus. With Jesus living in us we lose the desire to do anything that would bring harm. We can go through the day and do anything we want to do because we only want to do what is beneficial. This is what Paul is talking about in Galatians 5 and 6. We have tremendous freedom in Christ and can prosper and do well as long as we allow Him to influence our wants and needs.

Do you ever see or hear something so unbelievable you question its veracity? Me, too. Try this one. In the November 29 issue of Time magazine you will find this number. Ninety percent of all children in the United States will eat at a McDonalds at least once a month. I mentioned this to one of my classes today and they couldn’t believe it. But as astounding as it is I would assume the publishers of Time magazine would have verified this before printing it. So I am going to believe it.

Now if I should believe the publishers of Time should I not also believe the Creator of the world when He says some pretty unbelievable things such as He forgives all our sins if we will only ask? Or how about believing that He is coming again in the clouds of heaven to redeem us and at the same time resurrect those who have died believing in Him? How about believing that we are saved by grace and not by our labors? I could go on with some more pretty amazing promises from Scripture but, my point is obvious. The editors of Time are fallible people like you and me and yet I choose to believe them. I do this knowing that next week’s edition might possibly print a retraction acknowledging that they overstated the McDonalds thing.

One thing I can be absolutely sure of there will NEVER be a published retraction of John 3:16-17. Nor will there be one from I Thessalonians 4 or I John 1:9 or John 14. There are some things that are so sure, so real, so positive that choosing to believe them is a very smart thing to do.